Cry For You (Fallen Star #2) (3 page)

Tony just nodded. That was the best thing about being his favourite, he let me borrow the pizza car sometimes.

I got out the emergency kit again. Then I hiked my boobs up in my bra. I had to wear the ugly Tony's Pizza polo shirt or I'd not look like I was a real pizza delivery person but I undid all the buttons.

My fingers tapped on the steering wheel as I put my foot flat to the floor. I did it. I'd come up with the perfect plan. Maybe Tex would invite me in to eat the pizza with him. I mean, that'd be only fair when he got free pizza.

I got to the end of the road and indicated to turn up the driveway. For a moment, I considered getting out my phone and taking a selfie to preserve this moment forever. The "before" picture. The end of my sad single life. But then it'd just delay my meeting with Tex.

Hell, I had to take a few deep breaths when I pulled up. That lump in my throat threatened to choke me and I was nearly peeing my pants. Maybe I could ask to use his toilet.

I walked up to the studio, handling that pizza like it was precious gold, then knocked on the door. This would be the moment my life changed.

"Tex, did you order pizza?"

The girl standing on the doorstep wasn't the normal delivery guy but she wore the same shirt. She also wore a helluva lot of make up for someone delivering pizza. I couldn't help but stare at the huge smudge of mascara at the side of her eye. It was disconcerting.

I wasn't sure when Tex would've ordered the pizza since we'd been fooling around for the past hour. Maybe he'd pre-ordered it as a surprise for me. That would only make me love him more. The smell wafted into the studio and I wished she’d just hand it over instead of standing there with her mouth open. There really seemed to be something a bit wrong about her. Not just the weird makeup but the way her eyes darted around.

"Just a minute," I said to her. "I'll get some money for you. How much is it?"

The girl didn't say anything, she just sneered at me. She wasn't nearly as nice as the usual guy and he wasn't exactly good, but at least he didn't sneer or snarl. She must've been in a hurry and getting pissy because Tex hadn't answered me. She probably had a heap of other pizzas to deliver and didn’t want to be dicked around.

"Hurry up, Tex."

God, if he was going to order a surprise pizza, he could be organised enough to pay for it. Why hadn’t he just paid online? The way she glared at me made me feel really uncomfortable. It was a death stare of hate out of all proportion to the situation.

I wasn't exactly in a state to be standing around on the doorstep. I'd gotten up to go the toilet when she’d banged on the door. Since I’d been naked, I just threw a blanket around me. It’d been a bit of a shock anyway. I sure wasn't expecting anyone and had turned on the light to check then looked out the window in case it was just something banging in the wind. I nearly jumped through the roof when I saw her face peering back at me, pressed up tight to the glass. Maybe she'd knocked a few times and we hadn't heard her.

It was a warm night but a breeze fluttered around my naked legs and under the blanket, making me self-conscious about my own nakedness. I had one hand holding the blanket tight around me and the other hand out for the pizza but she wouldn’t pass it over.

Maybe she had some kind of problem because she hadn't moved, she just kept sneering. Her nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed as if she wasn't even sure I was human.

Finally Tex stumbled out of the bedroom. At least he'd managed to put jeans on although he was naked on top. He jerked his belt through the buckle as he walked out.

"I didn't order pizza," he said.

The girl's face turned grey. A really sickly, horrible grey, like nothing I'd seen before. I thought she was going to collapse on the porch. Sweat ran down her face and the tendons in her neck throbbed.

She opened her mouth in a silent scream. No sound came out for a moment then a cry like an animal caught in one of those steel traps. The noise pierced through me.

"Are you okay?"

She dropped the pizza on the doorstep, the box bouncing open and spraying sauce up my legs.

Then she ran.

"Do you think she's okay?" I asked. I stepped out on the porch to look for her in case she collapsed in the garden but heard the wheels of her car spin on the gravel and saw the headlights through the trees of the driveway going faster than was safe.

Her reaction worried me. Maybe she'd seen a rat or some kind of vermin in the room. That was something I didn't want to deal with. Tex’s naked chest was pretty darn hot but I didn’t think it’d cause that kind of reaction.

"Is any of that pizza still good?" Tex asked, picking up the box.

"You're kidding, right? Mr Rock Star eating reject pizza off the ground? Imagine if your fans saw you do that."

"Hey, three second rule. Anyway, it's not like it touched the floor. It was in the box."

He stuffed a slice of pizza in his mouth before I could stop him. Actually, it looked really good and, as he said, it hadn't actually touched the floor.

I grabbed a cloth and wiped the sauce off my leg.

That girl, she'd been really strange. I didn't know why but I had the feeling I'd seen her before. Not delivering pizza but somewhere else. I shivered and not from the cold. Something about the way she'd looked at me had scared me. I shook the feeling off. What threat would some complete stranger hold for me? She'd even run off without getting the money for the pizza.

Anyway, Tex distracted me by wiping the pizza grease off my lips with his tongue. Soon all thoughts of strange girls and pizza were forgotten as he unwrapped me from my blanket.

"I haven't had you over the table," he growled in my ear.

"Actually, you have..." but I wasn't going to argue about that. Not with his arms around my waist and him unbuckling his jeans.

-0-

I'd gone to get the washing in when I noticed the clothes had mud on them. Splattered all over my stuff. Tex's clothes were fine. It looked like someone had hurled big lumps of mud at the line.

When I unpegged my things and smelt it, I realised it wasn't mud. It was shit. I dropped my clothes on the ground.

What the hell had been going on?

I'd forgotten to get the laundry in the night before so it'd been on the line all night. Maybe some animal had shit on it or a bird. It was really gross though.

It made my stomach churn but I picked up my clothes by the corners and put them in the basket. I'd have to run them through the machine again.

If it'd had been an animal, how did it end up so splattered? It was like someone had done it purposely but there was never anyone around except us and the builders. I doubted that the builders would do something like that. It's not like I'd done anything to piss them off and, if I had, they were the kind of guys who'd straight up say something not do some dirty trick like flinging shit on my laundry.

I mentioned it to Tex.

"It'd be an animal. A possum or something. Don't freak about it."

I nodded but I was freaked out. It wasn’t an animal. I didn’t like weird things happening around me. It was okay for him to tell me not to freak out, it wasn’t his clothes that were covered in shit.

But Tex had turned his attention back to his guitar.

I put my clothes back in the machine then tidied up. When I’d finished all that, I sat down to do some work on my laptop. Tex’s music drew me out of my bad mood.

I didn't want to disturb him while he worked on a new song but my body burnt for him to touch me again. I couldn't concentrate on anything so I put my laptop to one side to watch him. His face was completely different when he played his acoustic to when he played his other guitars. He looked more mellow, more relaxed. His gaze moved from his guitar to the middle distance, as though trying to pluck out the music he heard in the air. His eyelashes fluttered. His fingers toyed along the neck of the guitar. It amazed me that from just nothing at all he could create this music. All this passion and emotion coming from him through the guitar.

In the few weeks since the festival, life had been quiet. Tex worked on some new songs and I did some programming. And, okay, we had sex a lot. I couldn't believe I'd lived so close to this man and had kept my hands to myself for so long. I could only blame it on my past experiences being so mediocre that I had no concept that sex could actually be so amazing.

That man could do things to my body that I had never dreamed were possible. It was lucky that we lived so far from anyone else because the way he made me scream would wake the dead. That thing he did with his tongue... how had I existed this long in life without that?

He finally noticed me.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"Nothing." I looked away from him. I didn't want to say I'd been studying him.

"Are you happy, Ruby?"

"Hell yeah." I stretched out on the bed, sleek like a well-fed cat.

He played a little tune. Different to what he'd been playing before. This was cutesy and fun. It made me grin.

"I'm doing some shows soon."

"Aha." I'd been expecting that. I knew he couldn't just do the festival and let it go at that. I’d steeled myself for it. I couldn’t let myself be threatened by the outside world. Tex needed someone who’d be there beside him not someone who’d get overwhelmed by the crowds and the experience. I’d promised myself I’d try even harder to support him. He’d been so understanding after I’d left the festival but I couldn’t expect that kind of understanding to go on forever. People said they were okay with things but the okay-ness never lasted. Eventually, they got sick of it and left.

"Are you fine with that?"

"Of course."

I reached down and scratched my leg. What did it matter if I was fine with it or not? He had to play. If I asked him to stop, I might as well ask him to stop breathing.

"Will you come and watch? For the entire night? We don't have to stick around for long afterwards. They are just going to be some smaller shows to keep us in practice before the big summer festivals."

I nodded.

Tex put his guitar down and grabbed my ankle. His fingers ran along my instep, my most ticklish spot. I squirmed on the bed, trying to pull my foot away from him.

"You'll stay for the whole night? Promise?"

I squealed and kicked out at him. He raised my foot to his mouth and bit down on my big toe.

"I promise," I screamed.

His hands crept down my leg and he lowered himself onto the bed beside me. His fingers inched inside the elastic of my panties.

"Why do you even bother wearing these?" he asked. "It just gives me the bother of removing them."

His fingers were inside the fabric now.

"Don't you want me gift wrapped?"

"It's hardly gift wrapping when they are soaking wet," he replied.

That cheeky glint in his eyes got me every time. I'd be flat on my back with my legs in the air any time he looked at me like that. My belly fluttered and I thought he wasn't doing nearly enough with his fingers.

Then we got interrupted by a knock at the door.

"That must be Hannah," Tex said.

He knew she was coming over and he’d started fooling around with me? I wanted to kill him. I was all het up and we had to stop. I tried to smile but gave an involuntary snort.

“Don’t start something you’re not going to finish!”

Tex got up to answer the door and I wondered if I should follow him. I could sit beside him and give encouraging girlfriend nods but was that even needed? Did he need an audience for everything?

"It's okay, isn't it? We won't be long."

"Sure. No problem." My voice sounded fake-cheerful even to me. It wasn't like I wanted him to not talk to his manager but I felt like I needed to lay down some ground rules. Like telling me beforehand if people were coming over. I hate people turning up unannounced. I needed time to prepare myself for other people being in my space, even if I really liked them.

Of course, the sex thing just made it even worse.

Maybe this whole thing would be easier when the house was finished and we'd have more space. Even though I'd been reluctant to get too involved in the decorating aspect of the move, when I started thinking about it, I could see the possibilities. A chance to create my own thing, from scratch.

I hid it from Tex but even going out with his friends drained my energy so that it took a few days for me to recover. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it. I just found it hard to handle.

In order to counteract that, I'd thrown myself into the plans for the new house. If I made it the perfect home, he'd be content there rather than wanting to go out more. One of the things I hated was having people in my house. It wasn't that I hated being hospitable, it was just having people in my space made me edgy. Very edgy. With the house being built though, I realised I could separate it into private spaces and public spaces. It was plenty big enough for that. Then, if Tex wanted to entertain at home, it would work.

And the whole idea of Tex wanting me to get involved was definitely exciting. Like he expected me to be with him for a long time.

I picked up my laptop. Hannah might think I was rude if I didn't go out and say hello but I just didn't have a happy, social face in me.

After about an hour though, I craved a cup of coffee. Tex had said this wouldn't take long but I had no idea what he considered “not long”.

If I went out and started making coffee, I’d have to offer Hannah one and even though that wasn’t really any extra effort, I didn’t feel like doing it. Tex would never think to offer. Even though she was his guest.

This whole housekeeper thing had gotten really complicated with the feelings added in. I knew it would. Feelings, not one of my favourite things. That’s why we should have ground rules.

I needed coffee. There was no denying it.

They had a lot of papers over the table. That was some high level planning.

"Sorry, this has taken longer than expected." Hannah smiled.

I smiled back. I couldn't complain. This was their business. Then Tex caught my eye and flashed me the most stomach-fluttering sex eyes. That fluttering didn't just stay in my stomach either. It travelled straight down to the Ruby Wonderland. Damn, he drove me crazy, doing that when I couldn't respond. My pulse raced and I wanted to throw Hannah out of the house so I could jump him. Instead, I did the right thing and acted polite.